Toning With
Paint Shop Pro

Toning images with the Curves dialogue in Paint Shop Pro produces
fabulous results which are more dramatic than the pre-sets in Paint
Shop.

From the moment photography began, the desire for coloured images sent
photographers and scientists in search of ways of changing their Black
and White pictures.

During the 19th and 20th centuries
toning and tinting turned the mundane monochrome into the magical,
until the arrival of viable colour processes like the
Autochrome. All manner of toxic chemical brews were
used to
achieve this objective. Sulphur, selenium, uranium, platinum
and
gold compounds feature highly in the chemical cookbooks.

Digital photography allows the 21st century practitioner to emulate the
effects without the darkroom danger.

The
built-in scripts of Paint Shop Pro allow one to copy these effects but
the pre-sets are limited; the use of "curves" opens an infinite world
of possibilities.

Emulation
Of Toning In Digital Images

This method is adapted and expanded from the Photoshop tutorial devised
by Thomas Niemann.

The
procedure is to make adjustments to the Red, Green and Blue channels.
This is the image that will be used for this tutorial.
It
is a street in scene in Switzerland ...

Step One

Select your image (colour image from a digital scanner or a
colour or black and white image from your scanner). Once the
image has been chosen you need to convert it to black and white ...

Effects
> Photo Effects > Black and White, or

Adjust
> Hue and Saturation > Hue/Saturation/Lightness
and move the Saturation slider to -100, or

With the image open create a new Curves Adjustment Layer - this is what
you will see ...

The RGB
will be highlighted so click on the down arrow and select one of the
three Channels (either Red, Green or Blue).

We will start with the Red Channel.

Here is the Curves for the Red Channel.

Take a look at the Curves dialogue for the Red Channel - you see three
dots (two white and one black).

What
you want to do is place the dots at the same place on the line where
the horizontal and vertical lines intersect the diagonal line.

When you hover the cursor over each of the points you will see read
outs like the following ...

First Point

The
first point is placed at the intersection of the left and bottom lines.
When the point is placed a readout will appear at the top
left,
in this case 64 > 64.

The first value is the original value and the second number is the
output value.

The
values can be changed by using the up and down arrows to
adjust
the output values and the left and right arrows to adjust the original
value.

The advantage of this will become apparent later.

Second Point

The
second
point is placed at the intersection of the left and bottom lines.
When
the point is placed a readout will appear at the top left, in this case
128 > 128.

The first value is the original value and the second number is the
output value.

The
values can be changed by using the up and down arrows to
adjust the
output values and the left and right arrows to adjust the original
value.

The advantage of this will become apparent later.

Third Point

The third
point is placed at the intersection of the left and bottom lines.
When
the point is placed a readout will appear at the top left, in this case
194 > 194.

The first value is the original value and the second number is the
output value.

The
values can be changed by using the up and down arrows to
adjust the
output values and the left and right arrows to adjust the original
value.

The advantage of this will become apparent later.

These
are the starting points for the Green and Blue Channels as
well
(of course the curves will be either Green or Blue when the points are
placed for the Green and Blue channels).

Step Three

Now for some adjustments to get started. Each of
the points on the curve needs to be adjusted.

When the mouse is hovered over the bottom left point it will
turn black and two nunbers will appear in the top left of the Curve
dialogue, like this ...

The two numbers are the Input
(left number) and Output
(right number) values.

The input numbers will remain the same and the output numbers will be
changed according to the toning charts..

The easiest method to adjust the numbers is to use the arrow keys.
The left and right arrow keys change the Input values (left
number) and the up and down arrows change the output values (right
number).

If the point is not placed correctly (and they usually are not exact)
then use the left/right arrow keys to make sure the input number is
correct and then move the output number to match the number on the
chart.

In the following chart the lower left input is 64 and the output is 71.
.

Red Input

64

128

194

Red Output

71

129

194

Here is the view of the
dialogue after the first point has been adjusted.

The up arrow key was used to move the output value up to 71.

Make sure that the image preview is selected .

Notice how the image has become slightly tinted with red.
This colour will be modified as we adjust the values of the other
channels.

Once all of the adjustments have been applied to the Red, Green and
Blue Channels click OK and you are done.

If
the effect is not to your liking simply go back into the Curves
Adjustment Layer and tweak the numbers. They are not carved
in
stone so mess with them until you are satisfied.

When the three Red points have been adjusted drop down the Channel
list, adjust the Green Channel and then adjust the Blue Channel.

Click OK when all three Channels have been adjusted, sit back and
admire your nicely toned image.

Toning
Values

This is where the imaginative photographer in you is
revealed. In the tables below are suggested values to emulate
some of the other well known tonings from the 19th and 20th
Centuries.

What you need to do now is to try them for yourself, and more
importantly experiment to find your personal values in the way that the
early photographers had their own formulations for their chemical
brews.

In the dialogue box for the curves, there is a little disc
icon. When you've made your own formulation, you can click on
the icon - give the formulation a name - and save it for
recall at a later date for your next masterpiece